Introduction

This document describes the data base and associated program code that was originally designed to prepare the Carl A. Purpus site on the World Wide Web. For that web site we needed to be able to publish articles either by or about Purpus, list all his collections, list types described from his collections, and list all sorts of other things, such as locations, images, etc.

In addition, it was necessary to cross-reference each type of information to other occurrences of related information. For example, we needed a way to keep a two-way cross-reference between Purpus' field reports and the list of locations he visited. We also wanted the cross-reference to be dynamic, or process-able, so new links could be added as new information became available.

As the Purpus web site developed, it became apparent that there were numerous applications for a data base of this type. For example, the lead author also has his own web site, which includes many of the same elements as the Purpus web site. Therefore the data base engine has been generalized to build any number of web sites, simply by changing the source of the data.

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Requirements

Requirements of the Purpus Web Site

Present published Articles, Letters, Collections, Photograph, and Location data related to the explorations of Carl Purpus in the southwestern United States, 1896-1903.
Cross-reference the web site components with hypertext links, for example, provide a link to Location data from Paragraphs of Articles that refer to Locations.

Requirements of the Eastern Mojave Web Site

Present published Articles, Location data, Species Lists, Area Lists, and Photographs related to my vegetation research in the eastern Mojave desert, Mojave National Preserve.
Cross-reference the web site components with hypertext links, for example, provide a link from an Area Plant List to my Collection record.
Provide me with a list of every one of my Collections, with its Determination status, Voucher status, and any (Collection) Comments.

Requirements of the Data Base Engine

Generate all or part of the web site as required.
Generate static HTML pages.
Provide automatically generated hypertext links of cross-referenced web site elements.
Maintain independence between the database engine and the data comprising a web site, so that the same database engine can be used to prepare multiple web sites.
Provide debugging assistance to the web site preparer.

Page Design Requirements

· Article Page Requirements

· Collections Page Requirements

· Image Page Requirements

· Location Page Requirements

Article Page Requirements

This section describes the design of Article Pages.

Article pages are designed to be 600 pixels wide.
The <title> of the HTML document containing the Article is the STitle attribute of tblArticles.
Each Article has two color areas; the Text Area is White (#FFFFFF) and the Title and Cross-Reference area is the "background color," which can be specified for the web site and additionally specified for each Article.
One or more buttons are hardcoded in section 550 of tblHTML.
"Topics in this Article" generated from Topics field in the Paragraphs.
Links to Literature Cited as specified in the Cross-Reference file.
Thumbnails of Images that are also links to the full-sized image as specified in the Cross-Reference table.
Links to other Paragraphs in this or other Articles, as specified in the Cross-Reference table, use the Short title.
An Image and its thumbnail can be specified in the Image and ImageTN attributes of each Article
The logo is hardcoded in group 503 of tblHTML
Title specified in the Title attribute of tblArticles
"(Continued)" added automatically for 2nd and succeeding pages
Author name from Author attribute of tblArticles
Topic field in Paragraphs becomes a <h1>.
A Subtopic field is also available in Paragraphs. It becomes an <h2>.
The HTML code is in the 500-group in tblHTML
The header of an article is written by WrArtHdr.

Area Plant List Requirements

ID	Grp	Line	HTML Text
535	801	10	<html>
536	801	20	<head>
537	802	30	<title>Eastern Mojave Plant Lists</title>
538	803	40	</head>
539	803	50	<body>
540	803	60	<font face="Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman" size=3>
541	803	70	<table border=0 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 width=600>
542	803	80	<tr>
543	803	90	<td bgcolor="#F7FFCC" valign=top width=234>
544	803	100	<img src="images/lobologo.gif">
545	803	110	<font face="Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman" size=4>
546	803	120	<i>Eastern Mojave Vegetation</i>
547	803	130	<td bgcolor="#F7FFCC" width=366>
548	803	140	<font face="Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman" size=6>

Collections Page Requirements

A Collection does not appear on the Collection Page unless there is a Determination and a Voucher.

Collections pages would be a good candidate for dynamic serving from a data base.

Image Page Requirements

Location Pages

Locations would seem to be one candidate for dynamic HTML created as requested by the web server. In that process, though, consideration should be given to a single Location table, or gazetteer, which is common to several web sites. We already have multiple files of locations. There is the Jepson Place Name Index, the Purpus locations files, and my own Locations files on my eastern Mojave web site. When I build the Annie Alexander and Louise Kellogg web site, I would expect to build yet another file of Locations.

Also, so far, we have listed only the United States locations visited by Purpus. There are also many locations in the Sousa paper that are in Mexico. We may at some time need to expand gazetteer locations to include Mexico.

Each Location should be checked against G. N. I. S. before we list a link to there. Sending someone to G. N. I. S. where they learn that the Location is not there, would be considered a "broken link," one of the deadly web site sins. If the location file were implemented in a data base and generated dynamically, then a check against G. N. I. S. could be performed dynamically. The Location table (tblLocations) has a field (logTryGNIS) indicates whether a link should be prepared to G. N. I. S. An automated feature could set this field.

Types Pages Requirements

Types pages might be a good candidate for dynamic serving.

Background Color Processing

Default Background Color for the Web Site Data Base See: strDBDefDefBGColor	#F6F6F0
Mojave Web Site Default Color	#E8F0FF
The Vegetation of Lobo Point and North Wild Horse Mesa, Mojave National Preserve, San Bernardino County, California.	#D9FFC0
Two occurrences of Desert Elkweed Swertia albomarginata (S. W